"Happy Happy Birthday Mason Dear"

I can hardly believe it!  Am I really sitting here writing a post about how my baby just turned four? 

 My Baby.  Four.  When did that happen?  I mean, we've been out of diapers for years, out of toddler beds and high chairs for years, and all able to dress ourselves for quite some time.  At our house, those are two and three year old milestones.  But four?  Four is clearly leaning closer to little boy than baby or toddler--especially when that little boy is a bright and brilliant as this one.  It's crazy to think that we're into a world of new milestones.  No more they're all potty trained or all sleep through the night talk. Now it will be things like, they can all read, (this one is upon us!) or they're all in school, and then heaven forbid, they can all date and drive!  It really does feel like it is going that fast.  Sometimes I think that maybe we just need another little one to hit the reset button on life, but then I spend a moment observing my little foursome, seeing them all so close and so grown up, and I feel content to be right where we are.  That was definitely my sentiment as we kicked off Mason's special day.

Here we all are presenting the breakfast in bed serenade,

and opening a host of Pixar related toys and gifts,

This was followed up by eating breakfast, playing with legos, and reading a few stories out of the Pixar storybook.  Then, you guessed it, opening a few more gifts.

This time it was a Plan City building set.  Actually, our very last Plan City building set.  Five years ago, when we were wandering through shops with Eric and Jenny in an upscale part of Northern Virginia, we came across the Plan City toy brand.  I fell immediately in love.  It was like a Brio train set, but morphed.  Instead of train tracks and rail cars, it was regular roads and street cars.  Not only regular cars though, but every kind of car imaginable, from UPS trucks to city buses, and buildings to go with them.  They were super cool, and to make them even better, they also had connector pieces to allow for train crossings so that the roads and trains could all be integrated into one giant transportation wonderland!  I knew that day in Virginia that I simply had to have them. The only problem, of course, was that they were, true to my taste, outrageously expensive.  Still, I'm kind of a determined little women.  Consequently, I mapped out a plan.  Spencer got his first train set for his second birthday, and then six months later, Santa brought his first Plan City set for Christmas.  This set included a basic roads set, and the city gas station.

For almost every holiday after that, Spencer, and then baby Mason, added a piece--the repair shop, construction site, hospital, police station, fire station, parking garage, and more roads--to their collection.  Now, on Mason's fourth birthday, we add the final Plan City set--the airport.

He was thrilled!  And immediately begged to get out our entire collection of roads and tracks, buildings and buses.  This was my heart's wish, and the other children and I eagerly complied.  It took us a little over an hour, but we finally got all of the roads and buildings into a configuration that worked.

Then when Daddy got home, he helped add the train tracks circling all around the city.  It was pretty impressive when it was all said and done, and the kids spent hours playing and playing.

It was a pretty good day, and concluded with a visit from our favorite family--the Andersons.  They joined us for decorating Cars cakes,

and a second birthday serenade.

Then Mason opened his final presents of the day--a Disney Infinity Set for the XBox and a few character packs to go with it.

He was equally thrilled with these gifts, and spent the next several hours laughing his head off with his big brother as they drove cars into each other and took turns throwing Jack Sparrow off the dock!  I still don't know what to think of this little black box that sits under my television, but sometimes even I can't hold back the laughter when I watch them play.  Especially when the boys get going.  They love the XBox Lego games, and while playing, one of them will inevitably miss the bad guy and hit their brother on accident.  This will cause an uproar and then they will spend the next half an hour forgetting all about the objective of the game, and instead using their characters to beat each other up in between peals of laughter.  It's hilarious!  This was the case tonight, and after all laughing ourselves silly, I reminded them that we had a big trip in two days and had better get off to bed.  Indeed, we do have a big trip--Mason's fourth birthday outing.  Surely you haven't forgotten that we do a big family trip for fourth birthdays.  And where do you go for a big family trip after having a Pixar themed party?  Disney's Car's Land of course!  It will be the kids' first trip to California, and Nick and I's first trip to California Adventure.  Who-hoo!  We can hardly wait. 

 Happy Birthday Mason!